The Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives has reiterated its support for ABS-CBN and its employees especially during this time when the majority of them have reached their last day of work.
In a series of tweets by ABS-CBN reporter RG Cruz, he shared several statements from party-list congressmen who were some of the ABS-CBN franchise supporters in Congress.
In his statement, Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdie Gaite said ABS-CBN’s closure at the time of pandemic is unacceptable. He said while the government ought to address the unemployment brought by the pandemic, the denial of ABS-CBN’s franchise which was obviously orchestrated by the executive brings another pandemic to the 11 thousand affected employees of ABS-CBN.
“Hindi napapanhon ang pagsasara ng ABS-CBN,” said Gaite.
https://twitter.com/R_G_Cruz888/status/1299230371343523840
ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro meanwhile said the fight for the ABS-CBN franchise continues and it is now at the hands of the people through people initiative.
“Tuloy pa rin ang laban, nasa kamay na ng taong bayan through the people’s initiative at iba pang pedeng gawin para maibalik ang ABS-CBN sa ere,” said Castro.
https://twitter.com/R_G_Cruz888/status/1299231536995213313
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlo Zarate on the other hand expressed support and solidarity to the ABS-CBN employees affected by the retrenchment brought about by the denial of the network’s franchise.
Zarate commits to continue the fight for the ABS-CBN franchise in different ways like pushing for the plenary debate on the TWG report of the committee on legislative franchises.
“Pinapaabot natin ang pakikiisa and solidarity sa mga manggagawa ng ABS-CBN na mawawalan ng trabaho dahil dito lalong lalo na ngayon na nasa isang krisis tayo,” said Zarate.
https://twitter.com/R_G_Cruz888/status/1299229934196416513
The Makabayan bloc also slammed Congress’ double standard after it hastily passed the franchise of DITO Telecommunity owned by Duterte ally and friend Dennis Uy.
https://twitter.com/R_G_Cruz888/status/1299270533511442435
DITO’s franchise was approved in third and final reading after conducting just 2 hearings at the committee level and in less than 3 months since it was filed.
ABS-CBN on the other hand took 3 legislative congresses and almost 6 years before it was discussed but they still rejected the franchise application with the vote of 70-11 last July 10.
